1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to imaging systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to imaging systems with digital image zooming capability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Imaging systems are used for a variety of consumer, commercial, industrial, scientific and military applications to name a few. In many systems, an imaging device for camera has a resolution that exceeds that of a display on which the image is to be viewed. If thee is an interest in viewing a portion of the image in greater detail, the image is magnified digitally by zooming in on the area of interest.
To avoid leaping images, the detector of the imaging system often operates in a field-to-field row interlacing mode to increase the scene update rate of the system. That is, the displays typically present the images with alternating image fields with each field presenting alternate adjacent rows of image data. For example, the first field might present an image with even number rows while the second field presents an image with odd numbered rows. This scheme is generally known in the art as an interlaced scanning scheme as the rows of the first field are interlaced between the rows of the second field.
Unfortunately, in certain applications, a portion of the scene or a target object in a field of view of the camera may be in motion. In some cases, when a scene is digitally zoomed, the motion may cause the image to appear ripped or distorted.
Most conventional approaches to correct motion-induced scene artifacts employ algorithms that derive and apply an operation globally to all pixels without paying attention to specific pixels in response to certain system parameters. For example, an accelerometer may be used to detect if the sensor is in motion and then determines the most appropriate zoom algorithm to be used across the entire field or frame. However, in reality, part of the scene may be stationary and part of it may have moving objects. Applying one operation globally may not minimize zoom artifacts of the entire scene.
Other electronic zoom algorithms may be individual pixel based, but those approaches have, for the most part, emphasized image smoothing as opposed to the zooming operation per se.
Hence, there is a need in the art for an improved system or method for providing for electronic zoom in imaging applications where at least part of the scene is moving at a speed sufficiently high to induce artifacts in the displayed image.